20 Combat Officers of Israel Defense Forces Urge An End of Funding to Organizations that Harm the IDF

The following letter, written by 20 combat officers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was delivered today to over 100 major donors to The New Israel Fund, including Alisa Doctoroff, The Jewish Communal Fund, Rabbi Gordon Tucker & Temple Israel of White Plains, The Jim Joseph Foundation & others. It is an appeal for American Jews to stop funding organizations that harm the Israel Defense Forces.

In recent years, you have donated significantly to numerous Israeli organizations and associations. The goal that you sought to achieve with your donation was to support Zionism and support organizations working for human rights and against anti-democratic activities. You support organizations that you believe work towards creating a better, saner, more democratic, and more moral Israel.

The reason why you donate funds is not in doubt, nor has it ever been. However, the funds you donate are not being used to serve the purpose for which you donated them. We also know that you donate to the New Israel Fund and we wholeheartedly believe that you love the New Israel Fund, support its activities, and want to strengthen it. We won’t argue the point.

However, there is one thing we ask, and, as active-duty and reserve soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces, we feel it is our right to ask.

Please demand that the New Israel Fund cease and desist from supporting organizations that defame us IDF soldiers, in Israel and around the world. These include organizations such as Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Yesh Din, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, and Machsom Watch.

Please demand that the New Israel Fund cease and desist from supporting organizations which protect terrorists who have attacked and stabbed Israelis, even in the current wave of terror which has been plaguing Israel for over a year. These organizations, which are supported by the New Israel Fund, include: B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, Ta’ayush, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-IL), and Rabbis for Human Rights.

Just this week, Israel’s Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya’alon, forbade the entrance of Breaking the Silence to all IDF bases. This is an extraordinary move expressing how deeply Israeli society perceives that is has been hurt by this organization. Israel’s Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett, announced that he forbade the entrance of Breaking the Silence to all Israeli schools.

Those same organizations are delegitimization organizations. Their purpose is solely to defame the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces and the State of Israel around the world. The activities of Breaking the Silence are extremely anti-Israeli and are perceived as such by the majority of Israeli society.

The organization works in various ways against Israel: They lie both within Israel and around the world, claiming that many IDF soldiers are “war criminals.” Several of these organizations deal with promoting lawsuits against IDF soldiers and officers in Israel and around the world. They hold events at the United Nations and participate in conventions held by the European Union, where they falsely present the State of Israel as an apartheid state, a state that practices ethnic cleansing, and other horrifying lies. In interviews to the international media they claim that the soldiers of the IDF are war criminals, that the State of Israel is a war criminal. They defend terrorists in court, even those who were caught in the act, and file petitions for their release and against revoking their Israeli citizenship. These organizations take legal action to prevent the destruction of terrorists’ houses by the state, and defame the state of Israel in every arena possible.

Their actions, the things they say and write against the State of Israel and IDF soldiers in the foreign press feeds anti-Israel and anti-Zionist campaigns, and even terror organizations such as Hamas quote from things Breaking the Silence say during Hamas actions against the State of Israel on the international stage.

The worst of it is not that you support and fund these organizations, but that so do European countries and Palestinian foundations. Palestinians fund their actions. The question is whether you, dear donor, knew of this activity. Does it reflect your values and do you agree that this is the use for the money which you donate to these organizations?

Dear lover of Israel – don’t let these Foreign Agent organizations, funded by foreign governments, tear away at Israeli democracy. Don’t let them tamper with the State of Israel.

Every time I hear a so called Jew defame Israel or the Jewish community or call for the support of someone/something that harms those who are to be perceived as family I, at best, imidiately color them frauds and charlatans, and at worst traitors (liken unto the so called Jews that turned their own in to the Nazi’s for preferential treatment).

The title of the article is somewhat misleading. "20 combat officers". Sergeants are NCO's not officers last time I looked.
That being said, as a former serving soldier though, I can fully understand the feellings and sympathize with the military who signed this letter.

I have never understood the Jews who donate and support the organizations that defame Israel and the IDF, as if they are apologizing for being being Jewish themselves, or are ashamed of it. And the Christians who support Islam and denounce Israel to do so will reap the consequences of their folly.

The list of signators looks like a roster of war criminals to me. Every organization these individuals defame are organizations that standup for human rights, civil rights and the rule of law. There are many people who want an Israel to exist that is not brutal, not militant and not violating the fundamentsl fo human rights and civil rights. The rule of law has no ethnicity or religion. It's shameful how these critics are defaming some of the most honest organizations defending the true idealism of Israel as a democracy, not as a brutal military tyranny that oppresses inocent people. I applaud the New Israel Fund, B'tselem and so many others for the hard work they do to speak out against injustice and stand by the fundamentals of human rights. The worst thing for Israle is the growth of rightwing fanaticism. Yesh Din does not lie. It publishes facts. What these tragic individuals want is to silence truth and cover it with the ugly blackness of rightwing slander. Stop them, don't stop truth, democracy and righteousness.

Israel has enough enemies. I appreciate the fact that these generals are taking a step to stop well meaning, generous supporters of Israel from sending funds to organizations that are actually against Israel.

The organizations mentioned in the article are, like similar far left organizations in other western countries, very selective in their indignation. They are always ready to condemn western democratic armies, but remain silent when it comes to condemning terrorist organizations.
You sound as if the IDF was deliberately targeting non combatants with the aim of kiling as many as possible . Believe me, with all the firepower at it's disposal, the IDF and IAF could flatten the entire Gaza strip in a single afternoon. They don't though, do they. On the contrary. Like other western armies the IDF takes grait pains to reduce collateral damage, despite the fact that Hamas routinely fires from within build up area's (another fact you fail to mention). Often, strikes are called off at the last moment, when it is believed that non combatants are present in the target area.
But you know what, don't believe what I say, just look at the images and pictures of the recent conflicts (or read the reports by UN observers). You will see one impact in a certain location, another single impact a mile away another 02 miles away, and so on. This means that the IDF is using pin point targeting instead of FMB (fire mission battery, for the artillery) or saturation bombing (in the case of the IAF).